台灣非營利組織如何適當使用臉書管道 - 政大學術集成

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(1)International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. Master’s Thesis. 立立. 政治大. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Analysis of the Communication Characteristics of Nonprofit Organizations’ Facebook Pages in Taiwan. •‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. a. Student:l Victor Stevenson C. hengchi Un. Advisor: Professor Tsung-Jen Shih. 102. 1. iv.

(2) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATION ON FACEBOOK. II. January 2013 Table of Contents Acknowledgments................................................................................................................. VIII Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Analysis of the Communication Characteristics of Nonprofit Organizations’ Facebook Pages in Taiwan ................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter Organization ............................................................................................................. 4 Literature Review....................................................................................................................... 6. 治. 政 in Taiwan Internet use and State of the Nonprofit Sector 大......................................................6. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Nonprofit Organizations ........................................................................................................ 7 Organizations’ Need to Communicate with their Stakeholders ............................................. 8. •‧. sit. y. Nat. NPOs’ Particular Needs and Strategies for Marketing Themselves. ..................................... 9. er. io. NPOs’ Communication over the Internet ............................................................................ 11. n. a. v. l C Social Networking Sites ....................................................................................................... 14 ni. hengchi U. Aspects that Influence the Communication Abilities of NPOs over the Internet ................ 16 Research Questions .................................................................................................................. 17 Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 18 Sample Frame ...................................................................................................................... 18 Operationalization of Dependent Variables ......................................................................... 19 Operationalization of Independent Variables ...................................................................... 22 Codebook ............................................................................................................................. 23 Inter-Coder Reliability ......................................................................................................... 24 Results ...................................................................................................................................... 26.

(3) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. III. Overview of the Application of the Five Dialogical Principles on Facebook Pages by Taiwanese NPOs .................................................................................................................. 27 The Little Effect of the NPOs Categories Over the Application of the Five Dialogic Principles on Facebook ........................................................................................................ 34 Receiving Government aid has no Influence on the Communications Abilities of NPOs on Facebook .............................................................................................................................. 41 Having at Least one PR Staff Working Full-time has Little Influence on the Application of the Five Dialogical Principles .............................................................................................. 49 Local NPOs Communicate Similarly to International NPOs Over Facebook ..................... 58 The Correlation Between Properly Communicating on Facebook and the Amount of Fans:. 政治. 大 What Elements Attract More Users? ................................................................................... 64. 立立. ㈻㊫學. •‧ 國. Discussion ................................................................................................................................ 71. •‧. Major Findings ..................................................................................................................... 71. sit. y. Nat. Future Studies ...................................................................................................................... 73. al. er. io. Limitations ........................................................................................................................... 75. n. iv n C hengchi U Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 76.

(4) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. IV. List of Tables Table 1. Means of Dialogic Loop compare to the independent variable “NPO’s category” ... 36 Table 2. Means of Usefulness of information within the posts compare to the independent variable “NPO’s category” .............................................................................................. 39 Table 3. Means of Conservation of Visitors within the posts compare to the independent variable “NPO’s category” .............................................................................................. 39 Table 4. Means of Generation of Return within the posts compare to the independent variable “NPO’s category .............................................................................................................. 40 Table 5. Means of Dialogic Loop within the posts done by NPOs receiving and not receiving Government aid ................................................................................................................ 44. 治. 政 within the 大 Table 6. Means of Usefulness of Information posts done by NPOs receiving and. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. not receiving government aid........................................................................................... 47 Table 7. Means of Conservation of Visitors within the posts done by NPOs receiving and not. •‧. sit. y. Nat. receiving government aid ................................................................................................. 47. er. io. Table 8. Means of Generation of Return Visits within the posts done by NPOs receiving and. n. a. v. l C not receiving government aid........................................................................................... 49 ni. hengchi U. Table 9. Means of Dialogic Loop within the posts done by organizations with and without PR Staff .................................................................................................................................. 53 Table 10. Means of Usefulness of Information within the posts done by organizations with and without PR Staff ........................................................................................................ 55 Table 11. Means of Conservation of Visitors within the posts done by organizations with and without PR Staff ............................................................................................................... 56 Table 12. Means of Generation of Return Visits within the posts done by organizations with and without PR Staff ........................................................................................................ 57 Table 13. Means of Dialogic Loop within the posts done by national and international NPOs.

(5) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. V. .......................................................................................................................................... 61 Table 14. Means of Usefulness of Information within the posts done by national and international NPOs ........................................................................................................... 63 Table 15. Means of Generation of Return Visits within the posts done by national and international NPOs ........................................................................................................... 64 Table 16. Correlation between Ease of Interface and Number of Fans ................................... 65 Table 17. Correlation between the elements within the page of the Dialogic Loop and Number of Fans................................................................................................................ 65 Table 18. Correlation between the elements within the posts of the Dialogic Loop and Number of Fans................................................................................................................ 67. 政治. 大 Comments and Number of Fans Table 19. Correlation between Photos on the Timeline with. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. .......................................................................................................................................... 68. •‧. Table 20. Correlation between Important Information and Number of Fans .......................... 69. sit. y. Nat. Table 21. Correlation between Links to Organization SNS and Number of Fans ................... 69. n. al. er. io. Table 22. Correlation between Explicit Invitation to Return and Number of Fans ................. 70. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(6) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. VI. List of Figures Figure 1. From the sample frame to the sample pool .............................................................. 18! Figure 2.!Percentage of representation. .................................................................................... 26! Figure 3. Low, medium-low, medium-high, and high number of fans. ................................... 27! Figure 4. Percentage of pages that presented applications ...................................................... 28! Figure 5. Percentage of NPOs that Presents Items of Usefulness of Information ................... 31! Figure 6. Percentage of Total Posts for Usefulness of Information Within the Posts ............. 32! Figure 7. Percentage of Posts for Conservation of Visitors Within the Posts. ........................ 33! Figure 8. Percentage of Total Posts with Characteristics for Generation of Return Visits ..... 34! Figure 9 Usefulness of information (Elements within the page).. ........................................... 37!. 立立. 政治大. •‧. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(7) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. VII. Appendix A: List of nonprofit organizations ........................................................................... 83! Appendix B: Codebook............................................................................................................ 86! Appendix C: Results for the inter-coder reliability test. .......................................................... 95! Appendix D: Screen shot of the questionnaire sent to the NPOs ............................................ 96!. 立立. 政治大. •‧. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(8) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. VIII. Acknowledgments Writing this thesis was one of the most challenging things I have ever done. It made me question a lot of my self-worth, the capacity of my brain, my ability to finish it, etc. It made me feel like a loser for a really long time and several times, I lost the motivation to write. I went from loving the subject to hating it and every possible feeling in between. I cried, I shouted, and I thought about just giving up many times… but now it is finally done! Anyone who has written a thesis, or is in the process of writing one, knows just how important the role of the advisor really is, and I would first like to thank my advisor, Professor Shih. He taught me many things about statistics, patiently answered my neverending questions and helped me make sense of all the data that I had collected. He was. 政治. 大 also like to thank the other two always able to help me find ways to move forward. I would. 立立. •‧ 國. •‧. comments and advice.. ㈻㊫學. members of my committee, Professor Sun and Professor Liu who gave me very interesting. sit. y. Nat. I would also like to thank my classmates Leon Van Jaarsveldt and Nicolas Vaky who. n. al. er. io. tried their best to make me understand how to use SPSS, which still has many features that remain unexplored by me.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. Alizee Stalens and Ellen Zeng helped me run the inter-coder reliability, a long, boring process that is, nonetheless, very necessary. Eli for correcting my many English mistakes. Once again to Ellen Zeng and also Ruby Liu, who helped me translating the abstract into Chinese. I would like to express my gratitude to them. Thank you also to my family, back in Chile, who must be so bored of hearing me talk about the thesis. Finally, I would like to thank Taiwan. I was given a scholarship by the Taiwanese government and that is what brought me to this wonderful country. Every time I felt like giving up, I was able to persevere because I hope to stay here. Taiwan’s people, its beauty,.

(9) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. IX. and everything that makes this island so amazing is what kept me going. Special thanks to all my Taiwanese friends who heard me whine about my thesis and kept on giving me. 立立. 政治大. •‧. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. ..

(10) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATION ON FACEBOOK. 1. Abstract This thesis examines the use of Facebook pages by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in Taiwan. The sample for this study was constructed using the official list of Taiwanese NPOs found on the Internet site Taiwan NGO (www.taiwanngo.tw), held by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (TAIWAN). A total of 99 NPOs’ Facebook pages were content analyzed, therefore this thesis used primary data. The theory used to analyze the use of the social networking site by the NPOs was the Five Dialogical Principles of the Internet proposed by Kent and Taylor (1998). Firstly, it was found that some categories of NPOs are over-represented while others are under-represented. Secondly, it was found that very little influences the way NPOs communicate on their. 政治. 大 seldom interact with their users, Facebook pages. Finally, it was discovered that associations. 立立. •‧ 國. •‧. talk directly to their fans.. ㈻㊫學. they don not respond or comment on users’ posts or comments; associations typically do not. sit. y. Nat. A global image of the use of Facebook pages by NPOs in Taiwan is given. Finally, it was. n. al. er. io. found that NPOs used Facebook pages very randomly. None of the variables seem to dictate the quality of the page.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. (Non-profit Organization, NPO). Facebook. 99 Facebook. NPO Facebook 1998. Kent. Taylor. Facebook.

(11) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 2. Facebook Facebook Facebook NPO NPO. Facebook. 立立. 政治大. ㈻㊫學. •‧. •‧ 國 io. sit. y. Nat n. al. er. NPO. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(12) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 3. Analysis of the Communication Characteristics of Nonprofit Organizations’ Facebook Pages in Taiwan Nonprofit organizations (NPOs), like any other kind of organization, must communicate with their stakeholders to be able to achieve their goals. Many scholars have proposed that NPOs should use relationship marketing to sell their projects and ideas, collect founds, raise awareness. Such marketing is based in long-term relationships between the stakeholders and the organization (Brennan & Brady, 1999; Conway & Whitelock, 2004; Rothschild, 1979; Sargeant, 2008) With the development of modern communication technologies, social networking sites (SNS) have become important tools for organizations to create stronger and closer. 政治. relationships with their stakeholders. SNS are web-based大 services that, not only allow. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. individuals who have already known each other to stay connected and communicate, but also. •‧. allow users to meet new people (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). For an organization this means both. sit. y. Nat. communicating with its present volunteers and donors, while also finding new ones that it. er. io. might not have come into contact with otherwise. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, or. n. a. iv. l C SNS in many countries, YouTube, researchers have been studying paying special attention to Un h engchi. the relationship building capacities of such sites (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Curtis et al., 2010; Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009; Seo, Kim, & Yang, 2009; Taylor, Kent, & White, 2001; Waters, Burnett, Lamm, & Lucas, 2009). This thesis will focus on the use of Facebook by NPOs. Due to its popularity, Facebook is, without a doubt, one of the most popular social networking sites. Only 6 years after its creation, it had more than 500 million users and 50% of them were logging on to it in any given day (Facebook, 2010). Taiwan has more than 13 million users, which is a 58.09% population penetration rate, it’s already the 19th country with the most Facebook users in the world and the 7th in Asia (Socialbakers, 2012). Some scholars argue that Facebook is only.

(13) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 4. popular among the young; however, in the near future, the average age of Facebook members is likely to rise, along with their geographic diversity (Gaines & Mondak, 2009). Not only have businesses been taking advantage of Facebook, in fact, many NPOs have started to use it. Through the application Causes more than $5M has been raised on Facebook since 2006 benefiting over 150,000 different causes (Facebook(b), 2010). Researchers around the globe have already studied the use of Facebook pages by NPOs (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Greenberg & MacAulay, 2009; Waters et al., 2009), paying special attention to the relationship building capacities of such pages. However, there are no such studies in Taiwan. For a long time NPOs were considered as powerless organizations. However, in recent years, thanks to the Internet, they have gained more power and control (Coombs, 1998).. 立立. 政治大. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Therefore, a content analysis of 99 NPOs Facebook pages was conducted utilizing an. •‧. adapted version of the code book used by Bortree and Seltzer (2009)1 to evaluate how NPOs. sit. y. Nat. use the social networking site. At the same time, a small questionnaire2 was given to the. n. al. er. io. NPOs to try to understand more about the reasons why they use it. Chapter Organization. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. This Thesis is divided into five chapters. The first is a literature review about nonprofit organizations, their need to promote themselves, the possibilities that the Internet gives them and the five dialogical principles proposed by Kent and Taylor (1998), which is the main theory behind this thesis. The second chapter introduces the research questions. The third chapter is the methodology section, which explains the creation of the codebook used for this thesis, and the operationalization of dependent and independent variables. The fourth chapter indicates the results for all the research questions, and is organized both by question. 1 2. Appendix B: Codebook Appendix D: Screen shot of the questionnaire sent to the NPOs.

(14) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK and by each of the five dialogical principles. The sixth chapter includes a discussion and a conclusion based on the research results, explaining the main differences between the different nonprofit organizations. The limitations of this research and the possibilities for future research are also discussed in this chapter.. 立立. 政治大. •‧. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 5.

(15) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 6. Literature Review Internet use and State of the Nonprofit Sector in Taiwan In Taiwan there are 16.15 million Internet users, with an Internet penetration rate of 70% that is the fourth highest in all of Asia (Hsu, 2011). About 95% of teenagers used the Internet during 2008 (Liang, 2012). Additionally, there are no significant gender differences in the use of the Internet in Taiwan (Lin & Yu, 2008), which means that at least among young people, the Internet is extremely widely used. In 2008, Facebook launched a Mandarin version, and since then its growth has been extremely rapid in Taiwan (Julia Ying-Chao, Angelina Nhat Hanh, Khalil, & Julian MingSun, 2012). Though growth in Facebook use in Taiwan has been slower since 2010, this is. 政治. 大 saturation (Su, 2010). because the social networking site was already close to market. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Currently the site has 58.09% population penetration, 51% of the users are male versus 49%. sit. y. Nat. 2012).. •‧. female, and the largest user age groups are 25 to 34, 18 to 24 and 35 to 44 (Socialbakers,. er. io. Since the second half of the 1980s, Taiwanese NPOs have flourished; the. n. a. iv. l C number of registered national social organizations increased U n from just over eight hundred in h engchi. 1988 to almost four thousand in 2000 (Kuan, 2002). They have rapidly grown in power and social participation, while working for goals ranging from human rights to ethnic minorities’ rights (Jie, 2001; Pelchat, 2004). Some NPOs, such as Tzu Chi, which has more than two million members in the country, are extremely powerful and work not only in Taiwan but also do international work. (Huang, 2009). Because of the particular international situation of Taiwan, NPOs in the country have historically been extremely diverse and have worked for many important goals. Working hard to promote international values of human rights and cooperation with other nations (Fort FuTe, 2001b; Jie, 2001)..

(16) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 7. As explained above, Taiwan has extremely high Internet penetration, and a large number of Facebook users that are almost equal in terms of male and female rate of use. The county also has a rich and very active nonprofit organization sector. For these reasons, Taiwan presents an ideal setting for the study of the use of Facebook by NPOs to communicate with their stakeholders. Nonprofit Organizations Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are “self-governing private organizations, not dedicated to distributing profits to shareholders or directors, pursuing public purposes” (Salamon, 1994). In North America, most NPOs have been created since the 1960s, many NPOs in Russia and in eastern Europe were created after the collapse of Communism. 政治. 大 since the middle of the 1980s (Salamon, 1994). In Taiwan, many NPOs have been created. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. when, due to many social movements, martial law was ended (Pelchat, 2004).. •‧. Even though NPOs have been around for a very long time, they have generally been. sit. y. Nat. considered as powerless entities. However, over the past three decades this vision has been. er. io. changing rapidly. In recent years, volunteering and membership have increased (Zimmer,. n. a. iv. 1999). Nowadays, NPOs are playing al much C h more important U n role in our society and in our. engchi. everyday life. Some of them concentrate on helping their own members and some serve society and the population at large, helping groups to get organized, promoting sustainable development, protesting against pollution, influencing the free market, and fighting for equality and human rights, among many other activities (Fisher, 1997; Fort Fu-Te, 2001a; Herlin & Pazirandeh, 2012; Lee, 2010; Zimmer, 1999). Some of the big problems that NPOs traditionally face are their lack of economic and human resources, as well as poor communication skills. However, several studies have highlighted the new opportunities that the Internet has given to NPOs, working within tight budgets, to better communicate and dialogue with their stakeholders by allowing them to.

(17) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 8. grow their stakeholder network at a very affordable price (Coombs, 1998; Seltzer & Mitrook, 2007; Taylor et al., 2001). Organizations’ Need to Communicate with their Stakeholders Every association, whether it is a private, for-profit, or a nonprofit organization, has the need to communicate with its stakeholders, defined as any person or group that can affect or be affected by the organization. Without having healthy dialogic communication with stakeholders, the organizations will not be able to launch, promote, or succeed in their projects. Through effective communication, organizations can create constantly growing, long lasting relationships with key players (Baker, Buttery, & Richter-Buttery, 1998; Broom, Casey, & Ritchey, 1997).. 政治. It is important to note that communication大is much more than mere promotion. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. or publicity. It is understood as a two-way process, wherein the feedback received is as. •‧. important as the information given by the organization, and through which one side tries to. y sit. Nat. create bonds with the other part (Stewart, 1978).. er. io. Since the end of the 1960s, many scholars have given different reasons to explain why. n. a. iv. l Cpreviously considered NPOs should use marketing techniques U n useful only for the private h engchi. sector. Brennan and Brady (1999) defend the use of marketing techniques by NPOs explaining that it is important for them to define who the clients are, where they are, when are they most likely to access the NPO, why they would access the organization and what is it they get out of this NPO. In fact, before a NPO is known by a consumer, he or she is totally indifferent to it, that is why most NPOs only get a lot of attention and money during crisis (Brennan & Brady, 1999). In other word, NPOs can have great projects, great ideas and still not be able to follow through with them for lack of funds or help from other organizations. NPOs depend on regular contributions from donors, help and/or sponsorship from the government and the time and goodwill of voluntary workers. They must identify all these.

(18) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 9. stakeholders, how to approach them, their possible differences, similarities and conflicting needs. Building good relationships with all these players is crucial to continue functioning (Brennan & Brady, 1999; Conway & Whitelock, 2004). In other words, NPOs have many different “markets” and therefore different “products” that need to be shaped and designed for each market. For nonprofit organizations, these “products” take the form of the organization’s ideas “sold” to the larger society. The “markets” are the many different stakeholders, whether they are donors, volunteers, governmental agencies, and social groups. Therefore, organizations must respond to the needs of all of these very different stakeholders, thus, they must design their products to serve each and everyone of the key players and communicate this information to them using. 政治. modern communication tools (Brennan & Brady, 1999; 大 Kotler & Levy, 1969).. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Even though a lot of the literature shows the advantages for a NPO to apply marketing. •‧. techniques, many of them continue to think of marketing as manipulative and a waste of. sit. y. Nat. money (Brennan & Brady, 1999; Conway & Whitelock, 2004).. er. io. NPOs’ Particular Needs and Strategies for Marketing Themselves.. n. a. iv. l C to businesses; they In many aspects, NPOs are similar U n have to deal with many h engchi. stakeholders and shape different messages accordingly. However, many partnerships fail because of bad relationships and poor interpersonal connections (O'Malley & Tynan, 2008), therefore NPOs should pay attention to these problems to avoid failing in their work. Communicating directly with stakeholders to give them appropriate information and to receive their feedback is crucial to any healthy relationship, thus NPOs must create a contact database to facilitate contact with stakeholders and keep them informed. The only way for a NPO to build a complete database is to take advantage of every opportunity to collect data, make it available for future interactions and, through these interactions, create a “friends portfolio” (Brennan & Brady, 1999; Conway & Whitelock, 2004). NPOs should not forget.

(19) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 10. the goal of these databases, which is not only to keep stakeholders informed, but also to improve the relationship building process, which can only occur through repeated interaction between the NPO and them. Repeated interactions will help an association to personalize and intensify relationships, becoming friends with its stakeholders while discovering which customers are the most productive. In the case of NPOs these interactions will help them recognize their best funders and volunteers. I have listed the many similarities between NPOs and businesses, but to think that NPOs are exactly like businesses and therefore can behave exactly like private corporations would be a big mistake. Sargeant (2008) listed 8 characteristics of NPOs that make traditional marketing tools inapplicable to them: (1) two distinct markets, the market for resource. 政治. 大(beneficiaries), (2) multiple attraction (funders) and the market for resource allocation. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. constituencies or publics, (3) need for societal, not-market orientation, (4) non-financial. •‧. objectives, (5) services and social behaviors rather than physical goods, (6) collaboration, not. sit. y. Nat. competition, (7) public scrutiny/non-market pressures, and (8) higher ethical standards. Other. er. io. researchers have focused on other differences, such as the differences of “products” provided. n. a. iv. l C n buyer and the consumer of the by NPOs and private companies, the separation betweenUthe h engchi. product, the amount of resources, and ethics. For all the reasons listed above, it is recommended that NPOs choose a marketing technique suited to their own characteristics and needs (Brennan & Brady, 1999; Conway & Whitelock, 2004; Rothschild, 1979). Many scholars have argued that possibly one of the best marketing techniques for NPOs is “relationship marketing”. Relationship marketing is marketing understood not just as selling products to consumers, but also as communicating with the consumers to foster longlasting relationships. This communication between an organization and its consumers is not seen as a source-receptor model but as a dialogue, which is “a tool for effective and mutually rewarding interpersonal communication” (Taylor et al., 2001)..

(20) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 11. Relationship marketing stresses the importance of personal contacts, which are often used to start, develop and sustain relationships. Brands should make friends with their costumers and they should also make friends among them. Existing relationships are a good strategy to create customer loyalty, services might create social bonds, etc. (O'Malley & Tynan, 2008). Developing relationships with everyone who is crucial for their work can help NPOs understand who gives money to charity and why, ultimately allowing them to create closer ties that may result in an increase of donations (Waters, 2009). Because of its interactive capabilities, the Internet is an ideal medium for relationship marketing. NPOs are slowly embracing this opportunity but they are still far from taking full. 政治大. advantage of all the Internet’s possibilities.. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. NPOs’ Communication over the Internet. •‧. Since its creation, the Internet has been studied and analyzed from many different. sit. y. Nat. angles. Some think that the Internet will shape the world and allow for positive changes, one. er. io. of these changes is the new power gained by nonprofit organizations to communicate at a. n. a. iv. l Ctheir ideas, communicate very low cost, allowing them to transmit their projects, and even Un h engchi. influence politics and the economy (Coombs, 1998; Mari Saez, 2007; Zoch, Collins, Sisco, & Supa, 2008). As we have seen so far, communicating with their stakeholders is crucial for NPOs. Because most of them work on tight budgets, new media that can reach a large audience is becoming more and more important to them. According to research conducted by Seo et al. (2009) NPOs consider their websites the most important new media tool because they can use them to enhance their image, look for potential new donors and provide information about their activities. NPOs need to attract users to their Internet sites in order to foster long lasting.

(21) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 12. relationships with them. From the basic design of the site (Bucy, Lang, Potter, & Grabe, 1999) to its capacity to create a dialogue among users (Kent, Taylor, & White, 2003), many factors have been taken into consideration in studying how to attract more visitors to an Internet site. One of the unique aspects of the Internet, compared with traditional media, is that it allows different users to exchange ideas and opinions among themselves; in other words, it allows the creation of dialogic communication. This particular characteristic of the Internet is the key for organizations to have successful relationships with their stakeholders, and to create new ones (Bruning & Ledingham, 1999; Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009; Kent & Taylor, 1998; Seltzer & Mitrook, 2007; Taylor et al., 2001).. 政治. 大personal contacts with their As has been explained above, NPOs need to create. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. stakeholders and the best way for relationships to grow is through dialogic communication.. •‧. Though the Internet provides the capacity for this to happen, it does not happen automatically.. sit. y. Nat. Organizations must pay special attention on the conception and maintenance of their web. er. io. presence. Kent and Taylor (1998) have proposed five principles to successfully integrate. n. a. iv. n information (for all publics), 3) dialogue on Internet sites: 1) dialogiclloop, C h 2) usefulnessUof engchi. generation of return visits, 4) ease of the interface, and 5) conservation of visitors. Some scholars have come to the conclusion that these 5 principles can be regrouped in 3 clusters: 1) ease of interface, 2) usefulness of information, and relational communication (Kang & Norton, 2004; Waters et al., 2009; Yang & Taylor, 2010). For this thesis, the original five dialogical principles will be used as the theoretical framework. The 5 principles have been chosen because they were created as a result of research on how to improve communications over the Internet (Kent & Taylor, 1998, 2002; Kent et al., 2003), and they have been used to do content analysis on a variety of different Internet sites. These 5 principles have been used to analyze sites such as Social Network Sites (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Rybalko & Seltzer,.

(22) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 13. 2010; Sweetser & Lariscy, 2008), Websites (Greenberg & MacAulay, 2009; Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009; Taylor et al., 2001), and Weblogs (Seltzer & Mitrook, 2007). They have been used to analyze the sites of both NPOs and profit private businesses (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009; Park & Reber, 2008; Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010; Taylor et al., 2001). Finally, the principles have been used to study NPO communications over the Internet in many different countries, including South Africa (Naudé, Froneman, & Atwood, 2004), Switzerland (Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009), and Canada (Greenberg & MacAulay, 2009). In other words, these 5 principles have already been used successfully to study the use of Facebook by NPOs in countries with very different cultures and political situations, so the researcher feels these 5 principles are a good choice for a similar exploratory study in Taiwan.. 政治. 大has been conducted yet in Taiwan. The study is of particular value as no research of this type. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Thanks to the fast evolution of the Internet and its continued development, nonprofit. •‧. organizations have begun, in recent years, to better understand the communication power of. sit. y. Nat. the medium. As their understanding grows, NPOs are slowly changing the way they use the. er. io. web in order to foster better relationships with their stakeholders, and are not simply using it. n. a. iv. l C & MacAulay, 2009). to disseminate their message (Greenberg U n Many organizations are h engchi. investing significant amounts of time and money in their Internet presence (Curtis et al., 2010). Even though NPOs’ use of the Internet is increasing, many have not yet applied the five dialogic principles on their Internet sites, they do not allow for much visitor interaction, and this causes the NPOs to miss an opportunity to build better, long lasting relationships with their stakeholders (Coombs, 1998; Ingenhoff & Koelling, 2009; Naudé et al., 2004; Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010; Taylor et al., 2001). Over the past 10 years, many different reasons have been given to explain this phenomenon. Some say NPOs simply have not recognized the real potential of the Internet (Seo et al., 2009). Some think that NPOs lack trained staff to.

(23) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 14. properly take care of their websites, which is supported by the fact that NPOs who have a full time public relations department are more likely to adopt social media tools (Curtis et al., 2010; Naudé et al., 2004). Finally, some think that NPOs try to do the best they can with the limitations presented in their own country, as Yang and Taylor (2010) explained: “The political system, media environment, and dependency relationships may all affect the design of organizational websites”. A study about the use of the Internet by Fortune 500 companies is particularly interesting because it shows how some of the most powerful companies in the world have applied the five principles on their Internet sites and obtained good results. These companies have gained trust from their stakeholders and have developed long-lasting relationships with. 政治. them (Park & Reber, 2008). Thus the study proves that, 大 when properly applied, the Five. 立立. •‧ 國. •‧. their stakeholders.. ㈻㊫學. Principles can help even the most successful companies to improve their relationships with. sit. y. Nat. Taylor et al. (2001) studied the application of the 5 principles on the websites of. er. io. activist organizations discovering that some appear to be following “the same design format. n. a. iv. l Care not fully using as corporate sites” but that most of them U n the dialogic capacity of the h engchi. Internet. The researchers insist on the fact that applying the 5 principles is vital not only for activist organizations but for any NPO. Social Networking Sites Social Networking Sites (SNS) are one of the best types of Web 2.0 sites for creating dialogic communications. They easily allow anyone to: “1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, 2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and 3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). Users of SNS have a voice to display and share their own opinions, affiliations, political preferences, etc. (Zube, Lampe, & Lin, 2009). For.

(24) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 15. NPOs, the most important characteristic of SNS is that pages on this sites “can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made” (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). SNS help to maintain already existing social connections and give the opportunity to create new ones (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Thus NPOs can recruit new volunteers and new donors who may not have otherwise become involved. Facebook has undeniably become one of the most important platforms for social communication among the young, and in the near future both the average age and geographic diversity of Facebook members is likely to rise (Gaines & Mondak, 2009). On Facebook, users can add ‘‘Applications’’ that enhance their proﬁle, and by default, users who are part of the same ‘‘network’’ can view each other’s profiles (Boyd & Ellison, 2008), thereby learning. 政治. more about their friends affiliations (Zube et al., 2009). 大 For NPOs all of this means that they. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. can use Facebook to recruit young volunteers, who could share their “liking” of the. •‧. organization’s work and policies with their friends, who are also potential volunteers and. sit. y. Nat. donors. NPOs can use the site to connect with their fans and friends, and add different. er. io. applications, such as Causes, which has already helped raising more than “$5M since 2006. n. a. iv. l C (Facebook(b), 2010). benefiting over 150,000 different causes” Un h engchi. Waters et al. (2009) analyzed 275 NPO Facebook pages in the United States. The study concluded that while NPOs understand the importance of presenting themselves clearly on their Facebook page, the main reason they fail to build relationships is that they often do not provide ways for supporters to get more involved, and therefore do not use Facebook to its full capacity. A Survey of 409 nonprofit organizations in the United States shows that 54.5% use social networks, such as Facebook, as a way of doing public relations (Curtis et al., 2010). However, many make the mistake of thinking that just having a profile on the site will increase their stakeholder awareness and bring more participation by itself, and thus they do.

(25) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 16. not properly using Facebook as a relationships-building tool (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Waters et al., 2009). Many of them have not yet realized that mere presence on the Internet will not help any organization (Coombs, 1998; Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010; Taylor et al., 2001). Several studies have found that some NPOs seem to be using Facebook, and the Internet at large, better than others. Seo et al. (2009) found that organizations working on advocacy, research or education create more interaction with their stakeholders in their pages. Waters et al. (2009) discovered that those working on health and education concentrated on fundraising. Aspects that Influence the Communication Abilities of NPOs over the Internet Past research points out that Internet use patterns depend on the characteristics of the. 政治. NPO; some will concentrate more on fundraising, others大 will provide more information to. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. attract volunteers, and some will just try to educate the masses (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009;. •‧. Greenberg & MacAulay, 2009; Kang & Norton, 2004; Naudé et al., 2004; Seo et al., 2009;. sit. y. Nat. Yang & Taylor, 2010). Therefore the question “Does the category of an NPO affect the way. er. io. they apply the five dialogic principles on Facebook?” was asked.. n. a. iv. l C a full-time PR nstaff member not only will make an According to past research, having U h engchi. association more likely to use social media, but it will also influence how it uses the medium to communicate with their stakeholders (Curtis et al., 2010; Naudé et al., 2004; Waters et al., 2009). That is the reason for asking the following question, Q4: Does having a PR staff working full-time influence the application of the five principles? Several studies show that NPOs lack funding and therefore cannot take care of their Internet presence properly (Waters et al., 2009; Yang & Taylor, 2010). Moreover, according to Yang and Taylor (2010), the way NPOs communicate over the Internet is highly influenced by the particular policies of the government in power. In the context of the current study, two questions follow from this previous research. The first is “Does being sponsored.

(26) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 17. by the Taiwanese government influence the way NPOs apply the five dialogical principles?”. Being sponsored by the Taiwanese government would mean that an organization would have more money but could also mean it would be more likely to follow government policies. Considering that each country’s policies influence the way its NPOs communicate over the Internet, the second question is, “Does the nationality of the NPO influence the way they apply the 5 principles?”. Research Questions Questions 2, 3, 4, and 5 were asked based on the broader questions outlined in the last paragraph of the preceding literature review. As this is exploratory research, the first question is designed to first provide an overview of the way NPOs in Taiwan use Facebook to communicate with their stakeholders.. 立立. 政治大. NPOs?. •‧. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Q1: What is the general use of the five dialogical principles on Facebook pages by Taiwanese. y. sit er. io. Facebook?. Nat. Q2: Does the category of an NPO affect the way they apply the five dialogic principles on. n. a. iv. l C government ninfluence the way NPOs apply the Q3: Does being sponsored by the Taiwanese U h engchi. five dialogical principles? Q4: Does having at Least one full-time PR staff working influence the application of the five principles? Q5: Does the nationality of the NPO influence the way they apply the 5 principles? The final question is thought to go further in the research of communication over the Internet and look for the relationship between communicating properly and having more fans. Q6: Is there any correlation between applying the 5 dialogical principles and the amount of fans on Facebook?.

(27) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 18. Methodology This study uses content analysis to explore the use of Facebook by NPOs in Taiwan. In this section, I will explain how Facebook pages were selected and how each of the key variables were measured. Sample Frame The sample frame of Facebook pages was taken from the Official webpage Taiwan NGO kept by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (TAIWAN). The page has a list of 411 NPOs working in Taiwan. It also has links to the official webpage of almost every NPO on the list. First, the official page was visited to see if it had any link to a Facebook page. A manual search was conducted on Facebook using the English and Chinese names of. 政治. all those NPOs who did not have a link to their Facebook大page on their official webpage.. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. After those two searches (using their official webpage and manual search on Facebook) 193. •‧. Facebook pages were found. This study aims to analyze the use of Facebook during a whole. sit. y. Nat. year. The year chosen was 2011 because it is the most recent full calendar year. Because the. er. io. posts analyzed for this thesis had to be posted during the year 2011, it was verified which. n. a. iv. n 99 pages were left to content NPOs had their Facebook page activel during C h that wholeUyear. engchi. analyzed ( Figure 1) No.!of!NPOs!listed!in! www.taiwanngo.com!. No.!of!NPOs!with! Facebook!pro=iles!. No.!of!pro=iles!active! during!2011!. • 411!. • 193!. • 99!. Figure'1'From'the'sample'frame'to'the'sample'pool:'this'figure'exemplifies'the'different'steps'to'go'from'the' sample'pool'to'the'final'sample'frame.'. After conducting a test research, it became obvious that analyzing every single post done by all the NPOs in their Facebook pages during the year 2011 was not feasible. In order to get a proper sample of the use of Facebook through the whole year 28 dates, throughout.

(28) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 19. the whole year were chosen randomly. First, the year 2011 was divided in fours by groups of three months (trimesters), from January to March, from April to June, from July to September and finally, from October to December. After that, using a table of random numbers, 7 dates were chosen for each trimester, which resulted in the following 28 dates: January 12 and 29, February 20, March 5, 11, 25 and 26, May 4, 17, 22 and 23, June 6, 20 and 22, July 30, August 4, 11 and 25, September 9, 12 and 14, October 21 and 27, November 13, 19 and 24, December 4 and 30. Every single post done during any of these 28 days was analyzed. Those 28 dates are the sampling period used for this research. Operationalization of Dependent Variables Number of fans. This variable was measured by counting the number of “likes”. 政治. 大as follow: “1” for those who had listed on each NPOs page and then operationalizing them. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. less than 1000 likes, “2” from 1000 to less than 5000, “3” from 5000 to less than 10000, “4”. •‧. for those with 10000 fans and more.. sit. y. Nat. Ease of interface. This variable is formed by adding the values of the following four. er. io. variables: 1) applications, 2) easy of donations, 3) link to donations, and 4) custom URL. The. n. a. iv. l C as the exact same number of applications was operationalized U n number of applications h engchi. presented on the Facebook profile. Easy of donation was operationalized as “1” for “donations can be made directly on Facebook” and “0” for “donations cannot be made on the SNS”. Link to donations was coded as “1” for present and “0” for absent. Custom URL was coded as “1” for the NPO has its own personalized URL and “0” for the NPO does not have a custom URL on Facebook. This is a continuous variable, the range is known only after collecting the data. Dialogic loop. A page can’t be fully dialogic if it does not offer and follow throw a two-way communication. This principle was analyzed in two parts, the first part takes into consideration five variables, 1) phone number, 2) email address, 3) recent post by others, 4).

(29) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 20. direct message button, and 5) NPO answers questionnaire within 24 hours. Phone number and email address are, two of the thirteen categories, presented in the “About” section of the Facebook page3, they were both coded as“1” for present, “0” for absent”. Recent post by others (located on the right top corner of the Facebook Timeline) and direct message button (located right below the cover picture) were also coded as “1” for present and “0” for absent, Finally, the speed in which the NPO answered the questionnaire sent through Facebook was coded as “1” for “answer within 24hrs” and “0” for “answer after 24hrs”. Therefore, this variable could have a value from “0” for none of the characteristics are present to “5” for all of the characteristics are present in the page. The second part analyzed the elements within the posts of the NPO and how it. 政治. 大 including 1) surveys, 2) posts engaged with its users. Thirteen characteristics were recorded. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. by the organization, 3) users like organizations posts. Each time a user clicks on the “Like”. •‧. button under a post done by the organization it would be counted as 1, Facebook does not. sit. y. Nat. have a dislike button so this characteristic can go from 0 to as many likes as a post receives.. er. io. 4) user comments, 5) organization responds to user comments, 6) posts by users, 7) users. n. a. iv. l C comment on other users’ posts, 8) organization U non users’ posts, 9) organization h comments engchi. request for action, 10) organization request information, 11) Organization Defends its policies, 12) organization criticizes, 13) organization praise, congratulates or support. Each post done by the NPO during any of the sampling period was analyzed. If any of the above characteristics was present, it was coded as “1” and any absent was coded as “0”. This is also a continuous variable. Usefulness of information. This principle was analyzed in two parts. The first one takes under consideration the elements within the page, the second part accounts for the. 3. The “About” section of the Facebook page can be accessed by clicking on “About” located on the Facebook Timeline right below the profile picture. It contains 13 sections..

(30) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 21. elements within the posts. Elements within the page takes under consideration 11 of the 13 items presented in the “About” section of the Facebook Timeline. The second part takes under consideration the elements within the posts done by the organization during the 28 random dates. The comprehensiveness of these eleven items of the “About” section was measured by 11 variables: about, mission of statement, overview, founded year, address, general information, products, descriptions, page owners, logo, and link to homepage. The organization was granted 1 point for each of the 11 features that it had. Therefore, usefulness of information in the “About section” can go from 0 to 11. Elements within the posts for usefulness of information were measured by 9. 政治. variables: 1) on site press release, 2) link to press release,大3) link to media room, 4) speeches,. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. essays, papers, or presentations, 5) audio visual content, 6) photos on the timeline without. •‧. comments, 7) photos on the timeline with comment, 8) photo album, 9) link to official. n. a. er. io. usefulness of information of each post can go from 0 to 9.. sit. y. Nat. website. The organization was granted 1 point for each of the 9 features that it had. Therefore,. iv. l C of the changesnoccurred on Facebook from the end Conservation of visitors. Because U h engchi. of 2011 to the beginning of 2012, the codebook provided by Bortree and Seltzer (2009) could not be applied on this section except for one variable, which is, important information. However, Rybalko and Seltzer (2010) argued that links to other social media pages of the same organization should be considered as “part of a company’s extended social networking presence” (p. 338). Thus links to the company’s social networking sites, and the company’s blog should be considered part of conservation of visitors”. Therefore, conservation of visitors was measured by the combination of these two variables: 1) important information and 2) link to the association’s other SNS. Each post done by the NPO during any of the sampling period was analyzed. If any of either characteristics was present, it was coded as “1”.

(31) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 22. and any absent was coded as “0”. This variable is also continuous. Generation of return visits. Relationships are built in time through repetitive contacts. An NPO want his Friends/Fans to keep coming back. Features that form this variable are: 1) explicit Invitation to Return, 2) Links to Other Websites, 3) New Events, 4) Downloadable Information, and 5) News Items. Each post done by the NPO during any of the sampling period was analyzed. If any of the 5 above characteristics was present, it was coded as “1” and any absent was coded as “0”. Therefore, generation of return visits is also a continuous variable. Each aspect of the posts done during the sampling period was coded. Because of the nature of Facebook, users can add many things to one single post, therefore, from each post. 政治. 大a “link to other pages”, “a piece of are coded multiple variables. For instance, a post could be. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. news”, “association asks for information”, “association criticizes”, and “photo”. Each of. •‧. these elements would be coded for the different variables that they represent.. n. a. y sit. io. Five independent variables were recorded.. er. Nat. Operationalization of Independent Variables. iv. l Cusing the 10 categories Type of NPO. It was measured U n listed by Taiwan NGO, they h engchi. are: 1) Humanitarian Philanthropy, 2) Public Policy, 3) Other, 4) Academic and Culture, 5) Social Welfare, 6) Agriculture and Environmental Protection, 7) Energy and Technology 8) Economic Industry and Commerce, 9) Health, and 10) Sports and Leisure. These 10 categories are mutually exclusive. Government aid. The variable was measured by asking each NPO through Facebook whether they received any kind of government financial assistant or sponsorship. The variable was code as “0” for no government financial assistant or sponsorship, “1” for receives government financial assistant or sponsorship, and “3” for did not reply. 22 NPOs replied that they don’t receive any government aid, 23 said to received, and 54 did not reply..

(32) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 23. Full time PR staff. Whether an NPO has PR working full time was measured by asking through Facebook whether there is a PR manager working full time. The variable was coded as “0” for no PR working, “1” for at least one PR working full-time, and “3” for did not reply. 27 said not to have any full-time PR staff, 18 replied saying that they did have one, and 54 did not reply NPO’s nationality. This variable was measured by asking through Facebook whether they had offices in other countries. If an NPO does not have offices outside Taiwan, this variable was coded as “0”, if an association does have offices outside the country, then it was coded as “1”, finally, if they did not reply to the questionnaire, it was coded as “3”. 19 associations said to have offices in other countries, 26 stated to only have offices in Taiwan, and 54 did not reply at all.. 立立. 政治大. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. All the associations were contacted using the “message” button4. Only 45 associations. •‧. answered to this short questionnaire, therefore the variables Government aid, Full time PR. al. n. Codebook. Ch. engchi. er. io. for a screen shot of the questionnaire sent to the NPOs).. sit. y. Nat. staff, and NPO’s nationality only takes under consideration these 45 NPOs (see appendix A. i Un. v. A similar codebook than the one used by Bortree and Seltzer (2009)5 was utilized to operationalized Kent and Taylor’s (1998) 5 dialogic principles. In September 2011 Facebook announced that it would start changing their old profile layout in to a new one called Timeline (Lessin, 2011), therefore, the codebook had to be slightly modified. “Recent posts by others” is a new feature of the Facebook Timeline, it is located on the top right corner of the page. This feature can be taken away by the administrator of the page, so it can be present. 4. The “Message” button is located right below the cover photo of the Facebook Timeline. Professor Denise Bortree provided the original codebook that they used for their journal article “Dialogic Strategies And Outcomes: An Analysis Of Environmental Advocacy Groups' Facebook Profiles” (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009). 5.

(33) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 24. or absent on the timeline, therefore, it was added as a dialogic feature, the wording had to be changed from Facebook “wall” to Facebook “timeline”. Facebook also added new sections presented on the “about” part of the page so all the new sections were added to the “usefulness of information” category on the codebook. They were operationalized as “0” for absent and “1” for present. Because Bortree and Seltzer (2009) were only analyzing environmental advocacy groups and this thesis analyze all different types of NPOs, other changes were made. NPO category, nationality of the NPO, the number of Likes and having or not at least one PR staff working full-time, all these variables were added to the codebook. Variables that were related to protecting the environment, lobbing for environmental laws, criticizing politicians due to environmental policies, these variables were all removed from the codebook.. 立立. 政治大. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Because in this research only the Independent variables are nominal variables (type of. •‧. NPO, Government aid, Full time PR staff, NPO’s nationality, and Likes) and the dependent. sit. y. Nat. variables are continuous, an ANOVA test was run each time that a research question was. n. al. er. io. being answered to evaluate whether the results are statistically significant or random. Inter-Coder Reliability. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 14 NPO pages were randomly selected from the sample pool for the inter-coder reliability test, which accounts for 14.14% of the total population under study. Two coders were involved in the inter-coder reliability test, including the author of the thesis and another coder who was a graduate student from the International Master’s Program in International Communication’s Studies from National Chengchi University. Before the inter-coder reliability started, the sample list and the codebook were sent to the coders. Instructions and clarifications were given. During a training session, to clarify all disagreements and questions, one of the fourteen pages was analyzed together by both coders. Later, each coder individually analyzed the other 13 pages. After finishing, ReCal (Reliability.

(34) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 25. Calculator), an online utility was used to calculate inter-coder reliability coefficients. For percentage agreement, the average was 89.19% and range between 80% and 93.33%. For Scott’s Pi the average was 0.80 and range between of 0.65 to 0.93. Both coders had substantial agreement (Table 1). Scott’s Pi was chosen because it can be use for nominal data and it corrects the coefficient of agreement due to chance6. 立立. 政治大. •‧. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. 6. Ch. engchi. i Un. Appendix C: Results for the inter-coder reliability test.. v.

(35) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 26. Results Firstly, I would like to present some of the results regarding the current state of the use of Facebook pages by Taiwanese NPOs. Some basic information about demographics, number of fans, and a general overview of the posts. The presence of the Taiwanese NPOs on Facebook varies immensely depending on the category; some are over represented while others are under represented. With 40 pages for Social welfare and 18 pages for the Academic and culture, which mean that, out of the 10 categories listed in the page Taiwan NGO, these two categories represent 59% of the total population (99 pages), there are 10 pages from Public policy, eight from Humanitarian philanthropy, seven from Agriculture and environmental protection, seven from Health, three. 政治. 大two from Economic, industry and from Energy and technology, two from Sports and leisure,. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. commerce and two from Others, which means that these last 3 categories combined only. •‧. represent 6.06% of all the pages.. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Number'of'Each'category'of'NPO' Ch. Others.!!. e2.00! ngchi. Sports!and!leisure!. 2.00!. Economic,!industry!and!commerce!. 2.00!. Energy!and!technology,!!. 7.00!. Agriculture!and!environmental!protection!. 7.00!. Public!policy! Academic!and!culture! Social!welfare!. v. 3.00!. Health!. Humanitarian!philanthropy!. i Un. 8.00! 10.00! 18.00! 40.00!. ' Figure'2.'Percentage'of'representation.'This'figure'illustrates'the'percentage'of'each'category'of'NPO'out'of' the'99'pages'content'analyzed.'. '.

(36) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 27. The number of fans ranges from seven to 137239, which means that each association has on average 7342.52 fans.. Low,'medium8low,'medium8high,'and'high' Amount'of'Fans' 33%!. <1000! 1000≤!to!<!5000!. 40%!. 5000!≤!to!<10000!. 14%!. ≥10000!. 12%!. ' Figure'3.'Low,'mediumDlow,'mediumDhigh,'and'high'number'of'fans.'This'figure'illustrates'the'percentage'of' NPOs'that'have'low,'mediumDlow,'mediumDhigh'and'high'amounts'of'fans.' '. '. NPOs like other pages on an average of 28.24 per NPO, ranging from none, for. 政治大 17.17% (N=17) of the pages, to a maximum of 383 for one page. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Posts. During the 28 days of the sampling period, in their ensemble, the 99 NPOs had. •‧. a total of 1391 posts, ranging from 0 post for 14.14% (N=14) of the pages, to a maximum of. sit. y. Nat. 81 posts. There were a total of 3149 comments and 70413 likes, which makes “Like” by far. al. er. io. the most popular way of interaction between the fans of the page and the NPO. Each post. n. iv n C U comments. received from their fans an average of 50.62 h elikes h i 2.26 n g cand. Overview of the Application of the Five Dialogical Principles on Facebook Pages by Taiwanese NPOs Ease of interface. Combined, the 99 NPOs’ pages had 376 applications, which represents an average of 3.8 applications per page. Ranging from 0 applications in 2.02% (N=2) of all pages two pages, to a maximum of 11 applications in 3.03% (N=3) of the total of pages. By far the most popular application is “Photos”. There were a total of 3038 photo albums, ranging from 0 to 334 albums per NPO, and a total of 164648 photos, which represents an average of 54.20 photos per album..

(37) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 28. The second most popular application is Notes. There were1790 written notes or 18.08 notes per page. The third and fourth most widely used applications are videos and events respectively. There were a total of 558 videos and 291 events organized during the year 2011. It’s important to notice that 24.73% (N=93) of applications categorized as Other, which means that they’re not automatically ready on Facebook but created by the administrator of the page. 59.59% (N=59) of the pages didn’t have any application classified as Other, but 3.03% (N=3) pages had up to six. In 2.02% (N=2) of the pages, a user could make direct donations on Facebook using a credit card and also had links to pages outside the social networking site to make donations. There were also other 11.11% (N=11) of pages that only had a link to donations.. 政治. 大URL on Facebook7 64.64% (N=64) of all pages, had their own custom. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. y sit er. al. Notes!. Ch. 50.51%!. Events!. 49.49%!. Media!Board!. 97.98%!. Un e n g c h i 56.57%!. Video! Link!to!Donation!. 97.98%!. v i64.65%!. n. Custom!URL!. io. Photos!(Total!albums)!. Nat. Applications!. •‧. Percentage'of'Pages'that'Presented' Applications'. 11.11%! 6.06%!. Figure'4.'Percentage'of'pages'that'presented'applications:'this'figure'illustrates'the'percentage'of'pages,'out' of'the'total'of''99'pages,'presented'applications,'it'also'shows'which'applications'were'the'most'broadly'used.'' ' '. Dialogic loop. From the About section of the Facebook page were taken all the Elements within the page.. 7. A custom URL is an Internet address that starts by www.facebook.com/ and finishes by a name created by the NPO and not the random URL automatically created by Facebook, which normally finishes in a set of numbers..

(38) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 29. Elements within the page. 13.13% (N=13) of all the NPO s’ pages had all the elements from this variable. On the other hand, 7.07% (N=7) NPOs’ pages only had one of the five elements. By far the least common element was “NPO answered questionnaire within 24 hours”. Only 28.28% (N=28) of pages, answered within that period of time. On the other hand, the most common element was the direct message button presented on the top of the Facebook page. 95.95% (N=95) of pages had this feature, this could be because it is on the page by default and, if desired, it needs to be manually removed by the page administrator. Phone number and recent post by others are presented 69.69% (N=69) of all the pages. Only 59.59% (N=59) of pages listed an email address, which means that only 41.41% (N=41) of the total of pages didn’t have this characteristic.. 政治. 大 is Organization request for Elements within the posts. The least common element. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. information. Out of the total posts from the sampling period, in only 0.5% (N=7) of posts the. •‧. associations requested for any kind of information. The second least common feature from. sit. y. Nat. this variable is Surveys, only 0.71% (N=10) of all the posts presented this characteristic.. er. io. Separated by NPOs, the average amount of Likes per post ranges from 0.4 to 392.04. n. a. iv. l Cof users’ comments per post per NPO. The average amount U n per post ranges from 0, which h engchi. means that 3.52% (N=49) of the posts didn’t receive any comments, to 15.74 comments per post. Only 0.12 of the users’ comments received any replied from the organization, the organization that most actively respond to users had an average of two responds per question, on the other hand, 18.18% (N=18) of NPOs did not answer in any way after users’ comments. There is very little interaction between users, out of 372 posts by users, only 61.29% (N=228) received comments by other fans, which means that 38.7% (N=144) of all the users’ posts did not get any comments from other users. The range goes from 0.13 to 9 comments per post. NPOs comment even less with an average of just 0.27 comments per posts done by.

(39) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 30. users. The most active organization makes on average 1.62 comments per post; on the other hand, 21.21% (N= 21) of the pages analyzed, that did not comment on any fan’s posts. Organizations requested for action in 9.48% (N=132) of the posts, ranging from 0 for 53 pages, to nine for two pages. In total, only 7.07% (N=7) of the NPOs requested user’s information (once each), which means that 92.92% (N=92) of the associations never asked any information from their fans. Also only 7.07% (N=7) of the NPOs defended their policies, ranging from 1 post to 4 posts. In only 2.01% (N=28) of the posts organizations criticized, 88.89% (N=88) of the organizations never used this feature, on the other hand, the association that used it the most posted 10 critics. Organizations praised or supported in 8.77% (N=122) of the posts during the whole sampling period. 65.66% (N=65) of. 政治. 大 from 1 to 10 posts. associations never used this feature; those who used it range. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Usefulness of information. None of the pages had the 11 items that form the. •‧. Elements within the page of this variable. The total ranged from none, for 2.02% (N=2) of the. y sit. Nat. pages, to 10, also for 2.02% (N=2) of the pages.. er. io. Elements within the page. The two most popular characteristics of the elements. n. a. iv. n within the page for this variable werel About both of this C h and Link toUhomepage, engchi. characteristics were present in 90.9% (N=90) of the pages. 72.72% (N=72) of NPOs listed their office address, 68.69% (N=68) indicated the year when they were founded, the organization’s logo, its mission of statement, and an overview of the NPO were present in only 66.67% (N=66) of the pages. 44.44% (N=44) of the organizations had a list of their products; only 40.4% (N=40) of pages had a little description. The two characteristics that were present the least were General information, only 19.19% (N=19) of the pages, and Page owners in only 8.08% (N=8) of the total population..

(40) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 31. Percentage'of'NPOs''that'Present'Items' of'Usefulness'of'Information' Link!to!Homepage!. 90.91%!. About!. 90.91%!. Address!. 72.73%!. Founded!Year!. 68.69%!. Logo!. 66.67%!. Overview!. 66.67%!. Mission!Statement!. 66.67%!. Products!. 44.44%!. Description!. 40.40%! 19.19%!. Gral.!Information! Page!Owners!. 8.08%!. 政治大. Figure'5.'Percentage'of'NPOs'that'Presents'Items'of'Usefulness'of'Information:'This'figure'illustrates'the' percentage'of'NPOs'that'presented'any'of'the'characteristics'presented'in'Usefulness'of'Information.' '. 立立. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. Elements within the posts. The least common characteristic from this variable was. •‧. Link to media room, 0.22% (N=3) of the posts, had links to media room. On the other hand,. sit. y. Nat. by far the most popular were photos. During the sampling period, 9.2% (N=128) of the posts. n. al. er. io. had photo albums, with a total of 8928 photos in them, which makes an average of 69.75. iv. n photos per album. Only 26.26% (N=26)Cofh all the NPOsUposted photo albums, which means engchi. that 73.73% (N=73) of the NPOs did not post any albums on their pages. On the other hand, a single association posted 28.91% (N=37) of the albums containing 65.5% (N=5848) of the photos, which is a mean of 158.1 photos per album. Photos were also posted directly on the Timeline, in total 226 photos were posted directly on the timeline. 6.19% (N=14) of all them were posted without any comment, on contrast, 93.8% (N=212) of them had some kind of comment. 51.51% (N=51) of the associations didn’t post any photo or album during the sampling period. In total 9.35% (N=130) of the posts had press releases. Most of them were present in the form of links; only 39.23% (N=51) of the press releases were given directly on Facebook,.

(41) TAIWANESE NPOS COMMUNICATIONS ON FACEBOOK. 32. against 60.77% (N=79) were posted as links. 5.32% (N=74) of the posts had Speech, essays, paper or presentations, 69.69% (N=69) of the NPOs never posted anything related to this characteristic. On the other hand, one NPO had the most posts considered as Speech, essay, paper or presentation; it represented 13.51% (N=10) of the posts of this characteristic. 7.26% (N=101) of the total posts had Audiovisual content, ranging from none, for 67.68% (N=67) of the pages, to 18 for one page. In 13.23% (N=184) of the posts analyzed, there was a link to the official website. 53.53% (N=53) of the NPOs never posted a link to their website, on the other hand, the association with the most post containing link to its website had 19 posts.. 0.1%!. On!Site!Press!Release!. 2.2%! 3.67%!. 5.32%!. er. io. Speeches,!essays,!papers,!or!presentations!. 5.68%! v. n. al Link!to!Press!Release!. Audio!Visual!Content!C h Photo!Album!. Link!to!Of=icial!Website!. y. Nat. Link!to!Media!Room!. sit. Photos!Timeline!without!comment!. •‧. •‧ 國. ㈻㊫學. 政治大立立 Percentage'of'Total'Posts'for'Usefulness'of' Information'Within'the'Posts'. engchi. i Un. 7.26%! 9.2%! 13.23%!. Photos!Timeline!with!comment!. 15.24%!. Figure'6.'Percentage'of'Total'Posts'for'Usefulness'of'Information'Within'the'Posts:'This'figure'illustrates'the' percentage'of'the'total'amount'of'posts'(1391)'that'had'characteristics'of'Important'Useful'information.' !. Conservation of visitors. 6.33% (N=88) of all posts had links to organizations’ own social networking site. Out of the total 85.23% (N=75) of the links were to the NPOs own blog, the other 14.77% (N=13) were to other SNS that weren’t on the list of SNS operationalized. Only 18.12% (N=252) of the posts had important information. 37. 37% (N=37) of the NPOs never posted anything important, on the other hand 10.31% (N=26) of all the posts.